The attempt to limit foreign funding of NGOs endangers the functioning of democracy in Moldova and cannot, under any circumstances, be accepted

The legislation of the Republic of Moldova on non-governmental organizations is obsolete, failing to provide sufficient protection against abuses. In spring 2016, the Minister of Justice, Mr. Vladimir CEBOTARI, accepted the proposal of several civil society organizations to improve the legislation on non-governmental organizations and established a working group to this end, composed of representatives of non-governmental organizations and the Ministry of Justice.

The group worked for more than a year and prepared a draft law intended to replace the Law on Public Associations and the Law on Foundations. This draft is in line with the best international standards and practices and may represent, if adopted, a step forward in ensuring a sustainable and independent associative sector in the Republic of Moldova. The draft was endorsed by international experts and subjected to public consultations with participation of non-commercial organizations held on 14 September 2016 by the Ministry of Justice. During its activity, the working group enjoyed independence and was not subject to undue influence by the leadership of the Ministry of Justice or any other authorities. The draft Law on non-governmental organizations is ready to be promoted for adoption.

Last week, the representatives of NGOs, members of the above-referenced working group, received from the representatives of the Ministry of Justice, part of the same group, a proposal to complete the draft with three additional articles (Articles 28-30) presented by the Minister of Justice.

The additions include special provisions on political activity of non-governmental organizations, which significantly limit the activity of non-governmental organizations and establish prohibitions for their direct or indirect foreign financing. These restrictions refer to organizations that contribute to development and promotion of public policies intended to influence the legislative process. At the same time, these restrictions apply to the organizations that, according to the initiative, could participate or intervene in political activities, electoral campaigns, electoral programs, support political parties, their leaders or candidates, promote them or any other actions undertaken by them, either jointly or separately, both, in elections within the meaning of the Electoral Code or matters subject to a referendum, or beyond elections. These organizations will be prohibited even from accessing the 2% mechanism.

The adjustments also aim at additional financial transparency rules for all organizations that benefit from financing outside the Republic of Moldova. They should submit to the Ministry of Justice quarterly and annual financial reports, even though such reports are submitted monthly and annually with the Tax authorities of the Republic of Moldova. Moreover, the NGOs should publish other reports confirming the origin of the organizations funds and revenues, and of the members of its management bodies as well. Additionally, organizations will have to submit a written declaration on incomes and expenditures ratio for political activities to the Ministry of Justice and the Central Electoral Commission and publish it on their website.

For breach of the above requirements, the Ministry of Justice will apply sanctions to the non-governmental organization and to the members of its management bodies. Some of the provided sanctions are a financial penalty in the amount of the monthly salary fund of the organization or in the amount of the material value of which the financial organization benefited in committing the breach, whichever is greater, as well as the liquidation of the organization, based on a court decision.

On 6 July 2017, the members of the working group convened in a meeting with the Minister of Justice. At this meeting, Mr. Cebotari mentioned that the proposed additions are designed to avoid the external influence on the policy of the Republic of Moldova, which is exercised, including by means of external financing of non-commercial organizations which are focusing on state policies or are supporting, directly or indirectly, initiatives of political parties. The Minister suggested to improve the text proposed by him. The representatives of the Ministry of Justice in the working group informed the representatives of NGOs from the working group that the final version of the daft to be promoted will be decided by the Ministry of Justice.

The signatory organizations consider that the proposals of the Minister of Justice cannot be supported in any way, because they are contrary to the international standards and are endangering the entire associative sector and democracy in the Republic of Moldova.

This initiative is contrary to the international standards, which do not allow such limitations for the NGOs activities. A recent analysis by the Venice Commission reveals that such limitations exist only in three member states of the Council of Europe  Russia, Hungary and Azerbaijan. Recently, the Venice Commission had a critical attitude on Hungarian law. The limitations proposed by Mr. Cebotari are even more restrictive than those in Hungary, a country that does not impose an absolute ban for foreign funding of NGOs. Moreover, the ministers initiative is contrary to the very purpose for which the drafting of new legislation was initiated. The working group was created to improve and not to worsen the working environment of non-governmental organizations. If Ministers intention was communicated from the outset, no non-commercial organization would have accepted to get involved in drafting such a draft Law. Furthermore, this initiative was announced at the latest possible moment, despite the fact that the same Minister created the working group more than a year ago.

The proposals represent an attack on non-governmental organizations that are active in promoting public policies or any other activities to develop participatory democracy. The absolute majority of Moldovan NGOs benefit from funds provided by development partners. Such measures will deprive the majority of active NGOs in the country of financing and the foreign political organizations and foundations working in the Republic of Moldova would be forced to cease their activity. Therefore, this will affect thousands of people directly benefiting from the NGOs activity and the functioning of democracy itself in the Republic of Moldova.

The proposed provisions are contrary to the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, which encourages the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, in developing policies and reforms in the Republic of Moldova. We must recall that the state of the Republic of Moldova itself benefits from continuous financial support from the development partners. Thus, restricting external financing for the non-governmental sector is at least disproportionate.

Furthermore, for 20 years the legislation of the Republic of Moldova has not provided for such prohibitions. Due to the fact that legislation had not provided for such bans, the associative sector in Moldova developed considerably over the past two decades. This confirms that the danger invoked by the Minister of Justice as an argument for promoting the initiative does not exist. The draft law elaborated by the working group already sets limits to the NGOs involvement in elections in line with best international practices. The proposed additions go much further, excessively limiting the activity of NGOs both during and after elections.

This initiative comes at a time when we are witnessing a regress in the environment of non-governmental organizations activity, including due to attacks against several civil society activists. Also, the statement made by the President Igor DODON on 26 May 2017 on the usefulness of promoting provisions limiting foreign funding of NGOs, similarly to Hungary, cannot be ignored. We would like to believe that this incident does not represent the policy promoted by the government regarding NGOs.

In the light of the foregoing, the signatory organizations call on:

the Minister of Justice, to give up the initiative to limit financing of the activity of NGOs from outside, as well as any other initiatives aimed at limiting their activity, and to send the draft Law drafted by the working group to the Government for approval as soon as possible;

the Government and Parliament to vote the draft law on non-governmental organizations drafted by the working group without introducing provisions that will limit the activity of NGOs. Any delay in promotion of this draft will be treated by us as an implicit confirmation of a policy of limiting the activity of the associative sector;

diplomatic community and development partners of the Republic of Moldova to closely monitor the situation of civil society in the Republic of Moldova and the initiatives to suppress the activity of the associative sector in the Republic of Moldova, and to take all measures to ensure that the civil society organizations working environment and freedom of the press do not worsen.

DECLARATION ON THE DETERIORATING ENVIRONMENT FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS AND MASS MEDIA IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

The undersigned organizations, members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (hereinafter - Platform), express their concern about the environment for civil society organizations and the respect for the fundamental principles of the rule of law in the Republic of Moldova. In particular, we have observed systematic actions designed to divide and discredit civil society organizations, including by setting them against certain quasi-nongovernmental organizations. Moreover, we note a general climate of increased intimidation of the independent media by public authorities.

For this purpose, we consider it important to communicate to the general public, development partners and Moldovan state authorities the Platforms position on some of the above-mentioned trends with a view toward discouraging them and preventing further deterioration of the situation in these areas.

We are increasingly witnessing representatives of the public authorities "penalizing" civil society organizations and non-affiliated media representatives for critical opinions expressed about the activities carried out by such authorities, and civil society organizations being unduly accused of promoting a "poor image" of public institutions or of promoting partisan political views. Moreover, some non-governmental organizations and media institutions have become "undesirable" according some authorities and are excluded from their dialogue with civil society. All these phenomena have taken place at the same time as representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial branches launch various initiatives proclaiming openness and cooperation with civil society in the Republic of Moldova.

Another worrying phenomenon observed lately has been attempts by some non-governmental organizations to promote agendas allegedly representative of civil society using various non-transparent and non-inclusive actions and approaches, utilizing and even abusing certain platforms and forums established by civil society. The most recent example of this took place on 22 February 2017, when a Civic Forum on Monitoring the Implementation of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement was organized. During this event the organizers were supposed to present three thematic reports on monitoring the implementation of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement in terms of the environment, justice and energy. CReDO (Resource Centre for Human Rights) was supposed to present its reports on the justice and energy sectors, but, regretfully, the report on justice has not been published or submitted to the Platform members so far. Moreover, the representatives of the Platform were not consulted in advance about the draft declaration on justice sector reform, which was proposed to the participants of the event for adoption, and its content did not cover many serious and evident problems in this area. In this context, the signatory members of the Platform reject any association of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum with the opinions and presentations made by CReDO at the event dated 22 February 2017.

Another regrettable situation was the confusion created by the opportunity to promote Pillar VIII, dedicated to civil society and media integrity, as part of the draft of the National Integrity and Anticorruption Strategy (NIAS). This proposal was sent to the National Anticorruption Centre during the last stage of the consultation process by three civil society organizations, which argued for the need to include such provisions in the new draft NIAS. Pillar VIII promoted the idea that there were serious integrity concerns in the non-governmental sector. However, the authors of this statist concept referred exclusively to those non-governmental organizations playing an active civic role, omitting the vast networks of religious organizations and trade unions. It is worth mentioning that the draft NIAS prohibited any "political affiliation" by members of non-governmental organizations managing bodies. On the other hand, in the signatories opinion, the inclusion of a pillar dedicated to civil society in the draft NIAS would "relativize" public authorities integrity, introducing the idea of ??the responsibility of the state in determining what kind of and how much integrity should be found in the non-governmental sector. Thus, although there is general understanding within civil society organizations about the importance of respecting the principles of integrity and transparency, standards of integrity should be subordinated to an internal process of self-regulation within the associated sector, so as not to interfere with the fundamental constitutional principles of freedom of association and freedom of opinion. Consequently, as a result of additional consultations, the National Anticorruption Centre, the author of the draft NIAS, stopped promoting Pillar VIII, a decision that we welcome. At the same time, we encourage all stakeholders to pay special attention in public debates to the importance of respecting the opinions of all participants being consulted in the spirit of constructive dialogue, and of avoiding accusatory and personalized rhetoric.

Additionally, we note that several incidents of direct and indirect intimidation of independent media institutions and investigative journalists were recorded recently, in the context of the continuing harmful practice of groups under the control of political oligarchs monopolizing the media. To this end, at the end of 2016 the investigative journalist Mariana Rata was called to the prosecutors office to answer questions about a criminal investigation. The journalist was suspected of disseminating information about the private life of a former police commissioner by publishing a journalistic investigation about his assets. Although it was clear from the start that no criminal offence was committed and the case should be dismissed, the prosecutor asked the journalist for testimony. Only after the case drew public attention was it dismissed. Another symptomatic case is that of 21 February 2017, when the weekly investigative newspaper Ziarul de Gard? reported the appearance of a phantom website named ziaruldegarda.com, which used the name Ziarul de Gard? and disseminated information written by anonymous authors or taken from other web pages. The portal resembled other anonymous websites that promote anti-opposition and pro-government content. Several civil society organizations urged the authorities to investigate this incident. The website disappeared shortly after that statement. On the other hand, over the past few months, more public institutions have unduly refused to provide journalists with information of public interest, citing the protection of personal data. In February 2017, based on the protection of personal data, all decisions from the court system webpage were anonymised, making it impossible to find judgments in high-profile cases. These are serious obstacles to investigative journalism.

In conclusion, we express our disappointment that the dialogue between national authorities and civil society is strongly affected by mistrust, inconsistency and harmful rhetoric. The cases in which collaboration with civil society is used by the government as a facade for legitimizing its own actions are increasing. In this respect, in their interaction with public authorities those organizations that promote a more convenient and/or closer position to the authorities and decision makers are favoured. It is important that the public authorities promote an inclusive and non-discriminatory approach in their relationship with all civil society organizations and the community of experts, including with the ones with critical voices or civil society representatives who decide to publicly express their political preferences.

In light of the abovementioned, the signatories to this Declaration:

1. Reiterate that, in a state based on the rule of law, civil society and the media play a key role in making public institutions transparent and accountable. It is particularly important for all civil society organizations and the media to be guided by and to respect the principles of transparency, fairness, professionalism and professional ethics in their work;

2. Call on the general public and development partners to more closely monitor, to prevent and to disavow all actions that have the effect of undermining freedom of association, freedom of opinion and expression in the Republic of Moldova;

3. Urge the Moldovan public authorities to hold an open, non-discriminatory and honest dialogue on issues of public interest involving representatives of all non-governmental organizations and media, irrespective of their expressed opinions.

The undersigned organizations, members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum: